They exist, and a 16-year-old Georgian caught one in a stream north of Darien in McIntosh County, NBC's Today Show reports. Noel Todd told the Today Show he was at a boat slip in Valona, an unincorporated area, when he saw two sharks in the fresh water.

He and a friend, Leon Howard, did what any Georgia fisherman would do ... they tried to catch them.

The boys got a shark hook and threw some bait in the water to encourage the sharks to get closer.

One did and the lads quickly landed a 368-pound, 8-foot, 5-inch Bull shark, among the deadliest fish in the sea ... or river.

Seeing sharks that close to a recreational area took Todd by surprise.

“There’s little kids that they learn how to swim with a lifejacket right in here,” he said on NBC. “Right where I caught the shark.”

As for why the sharks were there in the first place, Todd speculated to Channel 2 Action News that it could have been that the sharks were following shrimp boats as they were dumping “trash” fish into the water, and had just made themselves at home in Shell Creek.

Carolyn Belcher, a shark expert with the Coastal Resources Division of the Department of Natural Resources in Brunswick said she agreed with Todd’s assessment.

"We're aware that there are sharks out there. This is more common that most people would think," Belcher told Channel 2 Action News. "Usually, the sharks follow the fish in. And since smaller sharks have been displaced lately because of changing salinity in creeks, the larger sharks are moving in."

The bad news? The second shark got away and was much bigger, Todd said.

Bull sharks usually live in saltwater but have been known to spend time in rivers and streams. They are considered among the most dangerous sharks because they frequent shallow, freshwater where humans gather.
The species is believed to be responsible for four deaths along the New Jersey shore in 1916, which inspired the Peter Benchley novel "Jaws."

__________________"What's his offense?"
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Seems I recall reading from reliable sources that bull sharks have been known to travel quite a distance up the Mississippi River with possible sighting as far north as Memphis (and even reported, but unconfirmed, sightings near St. Louis!). They are known to inhabit the Ganges River of India, and to breed in fresh water lakes in Nicaragua.

Catching them with a big ol' hook is the best interaction a human can expect with these testosterone-fueled flesh-shredding machines!

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That's pretty close to where I was gator hunting.....and I thought all I had to worry about there were those swamp lizards.

I hooked up to a bull about that size three years ago when fishing for black tips on the Georgia coast. That thing hit and headed due north. I couldn't stop it, couldn't turn it.....all I could do was to hold on. It spooled a Penn reel with over 300 yards of line of it. Awesome beast.

It's been very dry down here for awhile now, and the saltwater has backed way up into the rivers and creeks. Dolphins, sharks, and various saltwater game fish are being caught and spotted a lot further inland than usual. But most everything around Darien is actually brackish most of the time.

That guy Jeremy Wade caught a bull sharks in rivers in Australia and also South Africa where people swim but there had not been any reports of attacks on swimmers in the river.

I also seem to recall a picture of a bull shark caught out of the Mississippi river near St. Louis before all the dams were built.

I was born in St. Louis to Depression Era parents. It was fairly common local lore that sharks would rarely swim up the Mississippi River as far as St. Louis back in the early part of the 20th century, but no one had a confirmed sighting or catch of one at least since WW2 began.

the Alton Illinois bull shark is a very credible story from 1937. Alton is on the IL side of the river from St Louis basically. You can find a fair amount of credible stories on the shark caught in a commercial fishing net there in 1937.

...that inspired the book and movie, "Jaws" was inspired by events surrounding several attacks by Bull sharks rather than a Great White. The sharks were up river in fresh water and killed several kids and an adult as I best recall.

Mike

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